Health Impacts of Ambient Biomass Smoke in Tasmania, Australia.

Nicolas Borchers-Arriagada,Andrew J Palmer,Fay H Johnston,Grant J Williamson,David M J S Bowman

doi:10.3390/ijerph17093264

Abstract

The island state of Tasmania has marked seasonal variations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations related to wood heating during winter, planned forest fires during autumn and spring, and bushfires during summer. Biomass smoke causes considerable health harms and associated costs. We estimated the historical health burden from PM2.5 attributable to wood heater smoke (WHS) and landscape fire smoke (LFS) in Tasmania between 2010 and 2019. We calculated the daily population level exposure to WHS- and LFS-related PM2.5 and estimated the number of cases and health costs due to premature mortality, cardiorespiratory hospital admissions, and asthma emergency department (ED) visits. We estimated 69 deaths, 86 hospital admissions, and 15 asthma ED visits, each year, with over 74% of impacts attributed to WHS. Average yearly costs associated with WHS were of AUD$ 293 million and AUD$ 16 million for LFS. The latter increased up to more than AUD$ 34 million during extreme bushfire seasons. This is the first study to quantify the health impacts attributable to biomass smoke for Tasmania. We estimated substantial impacts, which could be reduced through replacing heating technologies, improving fire management, and possibly implementing integrated strategies. This would most likely produce important and cost-effective health benefits.

Highlights

Smoke from biomass combustion, including wood heater smoke (WHS) and landscape fire smoke (LFS), is composed of a complex blend of pollutants such as particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and volatile organic gases [1,2]
We calculated that each year on average, AUD$ 309 million in health costs can be attributed to biomass smoke exposure in Tasmania, with the vast majority relating to WHS, the daily impacts from LFS can be extreme during severe bushfire periods
Our study estimates the health impacts and associated costs of population exposure to biomass smoke-related PM2.5, that produced by landscape fires and wood heaters over a 10-year period (2010–2019) in Tasmania, the southern island state of Australian

Summary

Introduction

Smoke from biomass combustion, including wood heater smoke (WHS) and landscape fire smoke (LFS), is composed of a complex blend of pollutants such as particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and volatile organic gases [1,2]. WHS is produced by emissions from a myriad of residential heating technologies such as wood or pellet stoves, biomass boilers, and open fireplaces. There is a great variation in the physicochemical properties of particles that are emitted, and they depend on the type of technology, fuel conditions, and fuel types, among others [3]. Short- and long-term exposure to particulate matter, the fine fraction that contains particles of size up to 2.5 μm (PM2.5 ), has been clearly linked to several health problems, including premature mortality, cardiovascular (CVD) and respiratory (RSP) hospital admissions, and emergency department (ED). Public Health 2020, 17, 3264; doi:10.3390/ijerph17093264 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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